CORRECTION (Published 6/26/2014) A story about federal action against Corinthian Colleges incorrectly reported its Heald, WyoTech and Everest colleges would not be permitted to enroll new students. Under the agreement with the government, some schools will have enrollment controls, but which ones is yet to be determined.

The U.S. Department of Education will put one of the nation's largest for-profit college chains out of business after years of allegations that it altered grades, falsified job placement reports and promised would-be students well-paying careers that never materialized.

Under an agreement with the government, Corinthian Colleges, which owns Heald, Everest and WyoTech colleges, will receive federal money to continue to operate nine campuses in the Bay Area and facilities elsewhere while its 70,000 current students complete programs that range from accounting to air-conditioning repair.

Those schools will not be able to enroll new students, and Corinthian will sell some and shutter the rest when students finish programs.

The department froze federal student loans and grants to the schools last week, saying that Corinthian had failed to address concerns "including falsifying job placement data used in marketing claims to prospective students and allegations of altered grades and attendance." Like other for-profit universities, Corinthian relies heavily on student aid dollars to stay in business -- it received $1.4 billion a year in federal student loans and grants, the department said last week.

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Corinthian had threatened to close, forcing a weekend of negotiations as students waited to know if they would have classes Monday and employees fretted about jobs and their pay.

"Throughout several days of intensive discussions ... our goal has been to protect the interests of our students, 12,000 employees, taxpayers and other stakeholders," Jack Massimino, Corinthian chairman and chief executive officer, said in a news release Monday. "This agreement helps achieve that goal."

He said the school would continue to work with the federal agency on a detailed transition plan.

The deal will allow "students to continue their educational programs as planned" as the company seeks "new owners for most of its campuses," he said.

A department-appointed monitor will oversee the schools "to ensure that students are able to finish their education without interruption and that employees experience minimal disruption to their lives," said U.S. Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell in a statement issued Monday.

Critics of the company were blunt in their reaction to the news.

"It's about time they are being put out of business, said Santa Rosa attorney John Fallat, who sued Corinthian and won an undisclosed settlement for disappointed students in 2007. "They are the bad apple in the vocational-school world."

The pending closure and ownership changes are "a great thing," said UC Berkeley education Professor Emeritus Norton Grubb. "A lot of the for-profit colleges don't do any good for students. They kind of prey on low income and minority kids and leave them with federal loans they can never get rid of. These are corrupt institutions."

Students at a WyoTech campus in Fremont said Monday they were worried about their fate.

"It's heartbreaking because a lot of people have spent a lot of time in this program trying to make it and graduate, and now it's ending," said Edwin Coreas, an electrician student paying $20,000 for a nine-month course. He has six months to go.

Jesse Eels, a 31-year-old Hayward resident enrolled in a heating and air-conditioning program, said he is relieved that students will be allowed to finish their current programs.

Yet, WyoTech's unstable future threatens Eels' housing situation as much as his career options, he said. As a Navy veteran, he said he receives a monthly $2,700 housing stipend that can be cut off if he stops taking college courses. "It's kind of sad," he said.

It was not immediately clear Monday which campuses would be sold and which would be closed after ongoing programs conclude.

Regulatory action against Corinthian in California, where the colleges have about 27,000 students, isn't new.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris sued the Orange County-based company last year in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging what she called an unconscionable predatory scheme to "target some of our state's most particularly vulnerable people -- including single mothers and veterans returning from combat."

In a filing in that case on Friday, state lawyers wrote that evidence gathered so far shows "systematic inaccuracies and irregularities" in the school's claims that graduates were placed in jobs. Messages to Harris' spokesman were not returned Monday.

When Gov. Jerry Brown was attorney general, he won a $4.3 million settlement from the company in 2007 when he brought similar allegations.

Corinthian managed to weather its many storms and had pushed back against the education department since Thursday.

"We have asked our friends in Congress to contact the Department on our behalf," CEO Massimino wrote to employees in an email. "Several of you have written to your own members of Congress to protest (the education department's) unreasonable actions against our company."